DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
Adams County teams were at the center of it all Saturday, fighting for a 1A Team State title with ten other schools in the Zebra Den.
Both Adams Central and South Adams wrestled up to their seed in the event, meaning the Jets were in the final and the Starfires were battling for fifth place in the small-school class, one of four sites across the state set up by the IHSWCA.
In the end it was the home team, Rochester, who took the spoils after an impressive performance throughout the day, inspired somewhat by a lack of respect for the team’s abilities after a loss before Christmas to West Central, a team that performed miserably and had to settle for eighth place after an 0-3 day.
Prairie Heights beat South Adams for fifth place, with the Stars admittedly disappointed to have missed out on a spot in the semifinals earlier in the afternoon.
The Jets entered the tournament as the #1 seed and had a bye, leaving the Starfires in the spotlight to begin the snowy morning.
Coach Robert Loshe’s team showed that they were prepared to make a deep run when they opened with two hard-fought decisions by Colt Bollenbacher and Nathan Plattner and that was followed by falls from the heart of the team’s lineup to build a 24-0 lead.
Southmont fought back with a pair of falls from their hammers, but Phoenix Boxell scored a key victory that essentially put the match out of reach based on the matchups in the lighter weights. He pinned Ayden Dickerson 35 seconds into the second period.
Titus Loshe clinched the dual one match later with a 5-0 win at 106 over Cooper Scott.
That win sent the Stars into the quarterfinals against three-time defending champions Tell City.
Quarterfinal Round
Adams Central faced local debutant North Miami in the 1-8 matchup, while South Adams wrestled Tell City.
Wrestling began at 150 pounds in this round and the Jets immediately showed that they were ready out of the gate with, tough, grind-it-out wins from Max Byerly and Matt Heiser early on. Byerly won 2-1 and after a fall from Jaret Smith at 157, Heiser beat Jordan Simon 4-2.
After North Miami picked up a fall at 175, the Jets reeled off four first-period falls in a row to balloon their lead to 36-6.
Meanwhile, the Starfires knew that they needed everything to go their way if they were to have a chance to beat Tell City and in the early going, that’s exactly what they got. Falls by Nathan Plattner and Wes Summersett, combined with the forfeit in the Marksmen lineup put the Starfires up 18-0.
The tide quickly turned in the returning champs’ favor and they won the next five, including key victories in toss-up matches at 175 and 106.
Adams Central clinched their spot in the semifinals with an impressive win from Dylan Ogg at 126, pinning Kaleb Evans with under a minute remaining in the match. Pins by Brason Schortgen and Mav Dubach were icing on the cake in the 53-21 victory over North Miami.
Daniel Rupp stopped the run by Tell City by taking a huge lead early in the 113 bout, but the Starfires did not need a tech fall or a major decision. They needed a fall.
Rupp did his best to find the combination that would pin Liam O’Malley, but, in the end, the Marksmen saved a few crucial team points with a 14-1 major decision, leaving Tell City ahead 27-22 with five bouts remaining.
Coach Robert Loshe’s staff played its final wild card and decided to bump up Dakota Sprunger and Will Patterson a weight and insert Eli Loshe at 120.
Loshe attempted to hold the talented Walter Hagedorn to a major decision and fought off plenty of chances to get pinned, but Hagedorn scored the tech fall win at 20-5.
The Stars missed out on another bonus point when Dakota Sprunger had to settle for a 17-0 tech fall, putting a whole lot of pressure on Patterson at 132.
The freshmen took the mat with his team trailing by five points with three bouts remaining, knowing that the Marksmen still had a hammer left in Chase Stephens. Patterson battled, but fell 9-6 in a hard-fought bout and Stephens won by fall at 138, leaving Colt Bollenbacher to claim nothing but a consolation prize with a 51-second fall at 144. Tell City advanced to wrestle Rochester with their 41-33 victory.
SEMIFINAL ROUND
The matchup between Adams Central and Tell City in the semifinal was about as juicy of a matchup as one could find at Rochester Saturday, with the Jets vowing for revenge after last year’s loss in the final. Jet fans knew that Tell City carried several weak spots but also had several hammers in the Terry brothers up top and Chase Stephens at 138.
That thought process held true, with the Jets splitting the first six bouts with the Marksmen and the Terry brothers proving too much for talented Adams Central seniors Trevor Currie and Keegan Bluhm. Nevertheless, Zac Wurm received a forfeit at heavyweight and the Jets led 15-13 after six weights. Matt Heiser’s victory at 165 over Kaiden Casebolt was key after Casebolt had just defeated Luke Bauman from South Adams in the previous round.
The lead changed hands in five successive bouts, with Kale Beer and Dylan Ogg both helping the Jets regain the lead with bonus point victories.
Brason Schortgen’s fall at 132 meant that the Jets would only need to win one more bout to take the match.
Mav Dubach wrestled Stephens well, but fell 8-6 and Tell City won by fall at 144 to regain the lead at 34-32 with only 150 to wrestle.
Max Byerly wasted no time in sealing the victory, pinning Jacob Casebolt in exactly one minute.
Over in the consolation bracket, South Adams swapped opponents with Adams Central and wrestled North Miami. The Starfires got falls from Isaiah Meyer, AJ Thompson, Bryan Roll and Phoenix Boxell to build a 24-12 lead and Titus Loshe tech falled Kamren Whann by a score of 16-0.
The Starfires advanced to the fifth-place match with falls from Will Patterson, Wyatt Mann and Colt Bollenbacher.
PLACEMENT ROUND
While the Jets came into Saturday as the #1 seed, it was Rochester who began the year as No. 1 and coach Tony Currie knew that for his team to win the title, they’d need to pull an upset against one of the Zebras’ top wrestlers.
Unfortunately for the Jets, those plans did not materialize and Rochester won two intense bouts at 175 and 190 by decisions of 10-8 and 5-3.
Things got even worse for the Jets when Alex Deming scored bonus points at 215 and Brady Beck got a fall at heavyweight.
After running through the heart of the Jets’ lineup without a loss and leading 22-0, the Zebras unleashed one of their missing links from earlier in the season with 106 pounder Grant Holloway. Holloway pinned Myles Kaehr as the second period expired and gave the home team a 28-0 lead, which was simply too large for AC to overcome.
With #8-ranked Layne Horn still to wrestle, the Zebras had everything they needed to score the win.
Kale Beer scored an early fall at 113 for the Jets and Brason Schortgen grinded out a 5-0 decision, but even with a first-period fall from Mav Dubach at 132, it still was not enough. Jaret Smith won 6-4 to close out the championship dual meet and the Zebras celebrated in their own gym with a 46-24 win.
The Starfires fell behind early against Prairie Heights 18-0, but answered back with three of their own to knot the score.
South Adams only managed two wins in their next five bouts and trailed 34-24 heading into 144.
Colt Bollenbacher scored a takedown in that 144 match and was ready to look for a fall, reaching underneath to clear the leg of Brody Hagewood, but the official in charge of the match felt that Bollenbacher should be penalized for the move, awarding Hagewood a point. Writhing in pain, Hagewood took an injury time out and eventually was forced to abandon the bout. While some in the crowd expected Hagewood’s hand to be raised because of the penalty point, it was Bollenbacher who accepted six points as Hagewood angrily left the mat, tossing his headgear against the bleachers.
The controversial result did not effect the outcome of the match, however, because Hagewood’s brother, Brock, won 7-0 at 150 and clinched the victory for Prairie Heights.